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The Name Game.

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
Ernie Toshack (Australia) one of Bradman's Invincibles Team


This from Cricinfo Player Page -


Profile:Ernie Toshack was one of the game’s most captivating characters. Tall, with striking, rugged features, he was known to his team-mates as The Black Prince (Sid Barnes enviously dubbed him The Film Star), having earlier, in his boxing days, been called ‘Johnson’ for his swarthiness (the American black heavyweight Jack Johnson ruled the boxing world just before Toshack was born). Son of a stationmaster, Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack was born in the New South Wales bush town of Cobar on December 8, 1914, and was orphaned when a boy. He was cared for by relatives in Lyndhurst, and played his early cricket and rugby league for Cowra. It was not until he was 30 that he ventured to Sydney, having already played for the State Colts and 2nd XI. A fastish left-arm bowler at that time, he first approached Petersham, the club for which he qualified residentially, “but they didn’t want to know me”. So he joined Marrickville, quickly rising to first-grade. Wheelchair-bound for months after a ruptured appendix in 1938, he was rejected for war service, so worked instead at the Lithgow Small Arms factory, in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. He was chosen for NSW as soon as the war ended and was quickly among the wickets. In March 1946, after seven matches for the state, he found himself opening the bowling for Australia with Ray Lindwall in a match at Wellington which was not recognised as a Test until a couple of years afterwards. New Zealand were routed in two days on a damp pitch, and Toshack came away with 4 for 12 and 2 for 6. Against England in 1946-47, slowing down to exploit another tacky surface, and closely supervised by skipper Don Bradman, he had match figures of 9 for 99 at the Gabba in the first Test, but in the remaining four he only once took more than one wicket in an innings, his stamina in the Adelaide Test (5 for 135 off 66 eight-ball overs in great heat) impressed everyone. With his accuracy (mainly from over the wicket), pace-change, and movement either way, to a strong leg-side field, he was hard to get away, and achieved his successes in a style not unlike Derek Underwood’s a generation later. A damaged knee was a constant hindrance, but he was passed fit for the 1948 tour of Britain, which was to guarantee him a kind of immortality as a member of Bradman’s Invincibles. Tiring of signing autograph sheets during the voyage, he entrusted a friend with the task. A consequence is that there are still sheets in circulation with his name mis-spelt as Toshak. Toshack enjoyed the tour, where he became a great drinking friend of John Arlott. He was one of seven of the Australians who took 50 or more wickets, and he fluked a heady Test average of 51 (his aggregate in four innings), below only Morris, Barnes, Bradman and Harvey. The 20 not out he managed in the Lord’s Test – his highest first-class score, made in a riotous tenth-wicket stand with Bill Johnston – gave him almost as much pleasure as his 5 for 40, which finished England off. Between the new-ball blitzes of Ray Lindwall, Keith Miller and Johnston every 55 overs, Toshack was the key element in tying England down. Nowhere was this ability better shown than in the Sussex match, when his 17 overs yielded only three scoring strokes. Against a decent line-up he bowled 32 overs in the match while conceding 29 runs. At Bramall Lane, Sheffield, he recorded the best figures of his 48-match career – 7 for 81 off 40 successive strangling overs – bemusing the Yorkshire crowd with his distinctive ‘Ow Wizz Ee?!’ appeal. When Toshack took 6 for 51 off 27 overs against MCC at Lord’s, it was considered by Bradman to be his best performance of all. If only his fascinating duel with Denis Compton had been caught on film. Toshack’s harmless sense of fun was often on show. He would don a bowler hat, grab a furled umbrella, and shove a large cigar in his mouth, pretending to be a Pom. And when a Surrey member spotted him idly playing with a bread roll over lunch and asked him what would happen if he bowled it to Bradman, Toshack’s instant reply was: “He’d hit it clean over the bakery, I expect.” His knee went in the fourth Test, the celebrated match when Australia hit 404 for 3 to win, and he played little after that. He underwent a cartilage operation in London, and by the start of the 1949-50 season, when he took nine wickets in the Shield match at Brisbane, a back injury made it all too painful, and a meteoric career was suddenly spent. In later years, he was glad to welcome visitors to his home in Sydney’s northern suburbs with a beer and a chuckle and a glance through his scrapbook, though he lost touch with his old team-mates until the 1998 round of Invincibles reunions. Toshack leaves a wife, Kathleen, a daughter, and several grandchildren, and with his passing, only eight of the original 17 Invincibles remain.
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
Archie MacLaren (England) Wisden cricketer of the Year 1895.


This from Cricinfo Player Page -
Wisden obituary
Archie MacLaren, very prominent in cricket during a long career lasting altogether from 1887 to 1923, died on November 17 when nearly 73 years of age. An immaculate batsman possessing the grand manner, he would have gained still higher renown on the playing field but for periods of poor health and the calls of business. Expert knowledge, obtained by careful study of every intricacy of the game, besides experience in leading his school, his county, the Gentlemen and England, might have made him supreme as captain, but he lacked the buoyant optimistic temperament so necessary for complete success in cricket and was easily upset by disagreement with selectors in being given players whom he did not consider suitable to the occasion.

To satisfy his own exacting ideas of perfect play and leadership, as described in his book Cricket Old and New, he required the position of dictator in order to pick his own eleven and control them with expectation of ready response to his every word or gesture. Unfortunately for MacLaren, such idealistic conditions were never forthcoming on the big occasion, but the responsibility for this rested partly with him more than once, when he was one of the selectors. Facts bear this out, as will be seen; but in batting he accomplished much, and will remain a magnificent figure in the eyes of all who saw him making runs.

He will always be remembered for his 424 for Lancashire against Somerset at Taunton in 1895, a first-class score that stood unbeaten for nearly thirty years and has been exceeded only by Don Bradman, who now holds the record with 452 not out, and W. H. Ponsford in Australia. For choice as a Test Captain he remains unrivalled, having in the course of eleven years led England in 22 matches, and his 35 appearances against Australia have been surpassed only by Hobbs and Rhodes during far longer periods. Often unfortunate when commander in these big events, he never led England to victory in a rubber, but showed his exceptional knowledge of the game when, having asserted that he could pick a side capable of beating the all-conquering Australian team of 1921, he fulfilled his prophecy by selecting and captaining eleven amateurs, who, at Eastbourne at the end of August, gained a victory by 28 runs after being 130 behind on the first innings. In that climax to his career in England he retained his superb figure, though white hair suggested more age than the approach of his fiftieth birthday. He finished his intimate association with first-class cricket by acting as manager to S. B. Joel’s team that toured South Africa in 1924–25.

Son of Mr. James MacLaren, for many years Hon. Treasurer of Lancashire C.C., Archie MacLaren was born on December 1, 1871, at Manchester, and began his important cricket life auspiciously when only fifteen years of age by scoring 55 and 67 for Harrow against Eton in 1887. He finished four years in the eleven as captain, and with 76 in a total of 133 off the Eton bowlers at Lord’s, showed such form that a month later he appeared in county cricket, and in his first match for Lancashire played a fine innings of 108 against Sussex at Hove.

His obvious powers took some time to ripen, but within a few years he reached the front rank of batsmen. Possessed of great resource, he could, according to circumstances, play a cautious or a brilliant game that made him splendid to watch from the ringside. Standing erect with bat raised well behind him, he was ready to receive any kind of delivery and would force the ball away with every sort of powerful stroke.

Captain of Lancashire from 1894 to 1896, and again from 1899 to 1907, he reasserted himself in 1921 as described, and in the winter of 1922–23, at the age of 51, when leading an M.C.C. side in New Zealand, he scored 200 not out at Wellington in a representative match. Besides his record 424, he three times exceeded two hundred for his county, 226 at Canterbury against Kent in 1896, next year 244 in the same fixture, and 204 at Liverpool against Gloucester in 1903. From 1893 to 1909 he frequently appeared for Gentlemen against Players, making 728 runs in these games with an average of 45; in 1903, when he and C. B. Fry added 309 in three hours for the third wicket without being separated, he scored 168.

Eight times in England and once in Australia he obtained over 1,000 runs in a season, his largest aggregate being 1,886 (average 42) in the summer of 1903. He enjoyed pronounced success on the Sydney ground, where in the winter of 1897–98 against New South Wales he scored 142 and 100 in one match, 109 and 50 not out a month later against Australia, 61 and 140 in another match with New South Wales, and 65 in the last Test. He also got 124 against Australia at Adelaide and 181 at Brisbane, altogether six centuries on that tour, in which he made 1,037 runs, average 54.57, in first-class matches. No wonder that MacLaren is still talked of in Australia, and especially at Sydney, for his wonderful batting as an object lesson for everyone.

In Test matches between England and Australia he made 1,931 runs, four times reaching three figures and averaging nearly 34. Twice in the nineties he toured Australia with teams led by A. E. Stoddart, and in the winter of 1901–02 he himself took out a side; but in Test matches this team, like the second captained by Stoddart, suffered four defeats and gained only one victory. In three home seasons — 1899, 1902 and 1909 — England, captained by him, won only two of fourteen engagements and lost each rubber. MacLaren visited America with K. S. Ranjitsinhji’s team in 1899, and the Argentine in 1911–12 with the M.C.C. side led by Lord Hawke, and he also played in India.

He astonished everyone by taking S. F. Barnes, of small experience in first-class cricket, on the 1901–02 tour in Australia. Yet he could not keep that wonderful bowler in the Lancashire county eleven, and in 1909 he failed to persuade his county colleague, Walter Brearley, then the best of our fast bowlers, to accept a last-moment invitation to play for England at Lord’s.

Opinions differ as to the ability of MacLaren as a captain. Everyone agrees that he held strong views and was loath to depart from them even if his leadership actually suffered. In fact, it appeared more than once that he pursued ways that showed up some curious decision of selection committees in carrying out their duties.

Undoubtedly he found occasional brilliant inspirations, born of his exceptional knowledge of cricket, but he committed some blunders difficult to understand in a man of his experience. A notable illustration of his erratic disposition occurred at The Oval in the Test match of 1909. To begin with, having the final word in the composition of the eleven, he decided, despite fine weather and a hard wicket, that England should take the field without a good fast bowler, John Sharp, of Lancashire, being preferred to Buckenham, of Essex. Then, with the score 9 and one man out, he took Sidney Barnes off in favour of Sharp, mainly a batsman, and kept D. W. Carr, a googly bowler, aged 37, on at one end for an hour and a half, an action for which it would have been difficult to excuse anybody. That was the match in which Warren Bardsley made 136 and 130.

Another lapse from wisdom was at Old Trafford in 1902, when he sent to deep square leg Fred Tate, always a short slip; and that historic dropped catch brought about England’s defeat in a match upon which the rubber depended — only victory in that engagement could have prevented the honours going to Australia. Yet such was his knowledge of the game that at Leeds in 1904 he gave Yorkshire first innings, and Lancashire, by avoiding defeat in George Hirst’s benefit match, went through the season unbeaten and were champions for the only time under MacLaren’s captaincy.

An incident in which MacLaren took strong action was of a kind without precedent or repetition, so far as known, and it aroused severe criticism. In July 1907 at Lord’s on the second day the paying public were admitted although saturated turf showed no sign of drying and any cricket was extremely unlikely. Yet the stumps were set, and when pulled up at quarter to five some of the crowd, after demonstrating in front of the pavilion, walked across the pitch. After prolonged discussion between the captains — Gregor MacGregor led Middlesex — and umpires, this statement was handed to the Press by A. C. MacLaren himself. Owing to the pitch having been deliberately torn up by the public, I, as captain of the Lancashire Eleven, cannot see any way to continue the game, the groundsman bearing me out that the wicket could not be again put right. — A. C. MacLaren. As described in the 1908 Wisden, the match was accordingly abandoned. Rolled next morning for the regulation ten minutes, the pitch showed little trace of the damage.

Naturally such a cricketer received many tributes to his ability. In January 1896 the Lancashire club elected him a life member and presented him with a gold watch and chain in recognition of his record score and of three successive hundreds hit in the course of eight days at the end of August that same season — 152 at Old Trafford against Nottinghamshire, 108 at Lord’s against Middlesex, and 135 at Leicester. Ten years later Lancashire made him a special presentation. In September 1921 he accepted an appointment to coach young players of the county, but an injured knee compelled his resignation early in the 1923 season.
Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack
 

JASON

Cricketer Of The Year
KS (Kumar Shri) Ranjitsinhji (England) Wisden Cricketer of the year 1897

This from A Tribute to his career (link from Cricinfo)

Ranji - wizard of the willow
Prof. AS Balakrishnan - 29 October 1999

In the summer of 1934 the Ranji Trophy, for which the states of India wage a battle royal, was launched by the Maharaja Bhupindra Singh of Patiala. It is a fitting cricketing memorial to Ranji, Colonel His Highness Shri Sir Ranjithsinji Vibhaji, Maharajah Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, GBE, KCSI, the Midsummer night's dream of cricket, as Neville Cardus put it. Yet to many of the present generation, Ranji is little more than a name. It was an irony of fate that the greatest cricketer India ever produced, should never have played first class cricket for or in India!. Here is an attempt to put into perspective the complex situation of the remarkable man who was both a legendary English Cricketer and an Indian Prince at a crucial time in Indian history.

Ranji was born on 10 September 1872 at Sarodar, a small village in the Western Province of Kathiawar. Sarodav near Jammagar, in Ranji's time was an arcadia, inaccessible and remote. In its special way, it was a kind of paradise and its charm was of site and the imagination, scarcely of facilities.

Ranji was proud of his lineage , stemming as it did from Loard Krishna and his clan, the Jadejas, were Rajput warriors. They claimed descendancy from the Persian Ruler, Jamshed, deriving from him their title. Later, the Jadejas migrated to Jamnagar in 1535. It is said Jam Rawal, founder of the present house , was told in his dreams to seek pastures new in Kathiawar. After a series of bloody encounters, Jam Rawal became the undisputed master of the whole of Kathiawar and established his capital, calling it Nawanagar, or "new town".

In spite of enlightened rulers who were creative and inspired, there was a curious shortage of male heirs in the family and Vibhaji who succeeded the throne five years before the Mutiny of 1857 was driven to adopt Ranjithinhji, the second son of an ideal Rajput gentleman, Jiwantsinghji. At the age of eight, Ranji entered Rajkumar College, a Public school in Saurashtra. Chester Maenaghten the Principal, initiated Ranji into the magic world of the Willow and when he died in 1896, he had bequeathed to the world a genius; his pupil had compiled 2,780 runs, the highest aggregate recorded in an English summer.

In 1888, Ranji went to England and joined St. Faith's, Cambridge. RS Goodchild, the Headmastrer prophesied a bright future for the lad from India whose gifts were rough and untutored with no orthodox defence at all, though tennis, shooting and billiards captured his attention, at Cambridge , he was determined to enrich his knowledge on the game and practice it the hard way. In 1892 he became a regular member of the Trinity college team but despite consistent performances in the college matches he was not in the university eleven that year. That he was an Indian held back his inclusion, a mistake which the Cambridge captain, FS Jackson, later admitted and regretted. In 1893 he got his blue - the first Indian to win a Blue, but his progress towards it, in the year 1890-92 was not spectacular. However he was a keen student of the game and innings by innings, he adjusted and improved his technique. Chosen to represent Cambridge against Oxford at Lord's, Ranji did not set the Thames on fire. He made 9 in his first innings and 0 in the second but his fielding stood out. At slip he took three good catches. CB Fry in his autobiography , "Life Worth Living", recorded, "he fielded marvellously".

In the same year he was chosen for the South of England against the Australians and the Gentlemen vs Players at the Oval. His Cambridge figures were nothing extraordinary - 386 runs for an average of 29.9, but he was the third in the Cambridge batting averages.

'Run-get' Singhji, as his Cambridge colleagues called him, was approached by Surrey to join them, but Ranj had other ideas. He wanted to qualify for Sussex. Sussex was a comparatively weak side and Ranji was sure of his place. Beside he had friends there, CB Fry and WL Murdoch. The wet summer of 1894 saw little cricket played. In all Ranji played sixteen innings making 387 runs at an average of 32. Playing for MCC against Cambridge at Lord's under WG Grace, Ranji made 94. For the South against the North at Scarborough, he made 44 and 52 not out.

But the best was yet to be. The year 1895 heralded a new dawn. In his first match for Sussex against MCC at Lord's Ranji scored 77 not out and 150, "Playing in a fashion which beggars description", took six wickets and made two catches, a total of 1,227 runs were scored in the match. 48 year old WG Grace made 103 in MCC's second innings and MCC won by 19 runs. In all Ranji made 4 centuries during the season, a total of 1,766 runs at an average of 50.16, only Grace and Maclaren where above him in the first class averages. 'Punch' paid tribute: "Great Grace to young Maclaren yields his place, and Ranjitsinghji follows after Grace".

Like Pied Piper, the bloom of the tropics, already in his second season in the first class game, Ranji had acquired a following. A much talked about character, he had grown into a living legend. 1896 was an Australian summer, Harry Trott leading a strong Australian side. Ranji was in full cry, 30 and 74 against MCC, 64 and 33 against Yorkshire. He had established himself as the most exciting batsman in the country. Judged from any standards, Ranji should have been a certainty for the Lords Test on 22nd June. Those were days when Test teams were not chosen by an independent selection committee, but by the country at whose ground the matches was to be played. Lord Harris, President of the MCC, six years previously Governor of Bombay, was not in favour of playing what he called "birds of passage". Ranji was not selected, a decision that invested the wrath of the public and the press. The second Test was to be played at Old Trafford and the wise men of Lancashire had no hesitation in including Ranji. Australia batted first and made 412. England made a dreadful start and Ranji batting at number three was caught by Trott off Mckibbin for 62. England replied with 231 and faced with a deficit off 181, England had to follow on. At draw of stumps on the second day, England were 72 behind and the cream of the batting had gone. Ranji rose to the occasion and played the finest innings of his career. He took the total to 305 and remained unbeaten with a scintillating innings of 154 made in 190 minutes with twenty three hits to the fence. Wisden described it as "marvellous". Ranji became the first Indian to play Test cricket and the second batsman after WG Grace to score a hundred on his initial appearance. George Giffen, Ranji's opponent in this match described Ranji as the batting wonder of the age, while another Australian said of Ranji "he is more than a batsman - he is nothing less than a juggler". England ultimately lost the Test but Australia had to fight for victory. England won the final Test of the series at the Oval by 66 runs and claimed the rubber, Ranji failed in both the innings, scoring 8 and 11. His aggregate of 235 was the highest for the series and with an average of 78.33 Ranji topped the combined English and Australian batting averages. Soon afterwards he scored three centuries in successive innings - 165 vs Lancashire, 100 and 125 against Yorkshire, the last two made in a single day. By the end of the summer he had, too, broken WG Grace's record of 1871 by scoring 2,780 runs in a season (averaging 57.91, with 10 centuries).

Wisden selected Ranji as one of the "Five Cricketers of the year" and noted "If the word genius can be employed in connection with cricket it surely applies to the young Indian batsman". He (Ranji) has burst upon the cricketing world like a star from the East??.he has adopted cricket and turned it into an Oriential poem of action".

In 1897 though handicapped by frequent bouts of asthma, Ranji went with AE Stoddant's side to Australia where he scored 189 in his first match of the tour, and 175 in his first Test there. Batting at number seven, he was the last batsman to get out, It was the highest score that had ever been made for England in Test cricket. Ranji also achieved the unique distinction of scoring a century on his debut against Australia both in England as well as in "Down Under ". Ernest Jones, the Australian fast bowler, who was the country's highest wicket taker was a blatant thrower and Ranji accused him of 'chucking'. This annoyed the Australian public and they barracked Ranji throughout the innings when the teams met for the third Test at Adelaide, Ernest Jones' home ground. The importance of being Ernest was evident. Except for this unsavory feature, it was a triumphant tour for Ranji. He became the darling of the people and created a "Ranji fever". There were Ranjitsinghji matches, Ranjithsinghji sandwiches, Ranjitsinghji hair-restorers, bats and chairs".

In March 1898 the team returned to England, Ranji stayed back at Colombo as he had decided to spend some time in India after being away for ten years. At Patiala, he played his first club cricket in India. He made a century against the Simla Volunteers and a double century against Umballa. After spending nearly a year at Nawanagar, he went back to England in time for the next season. The close of the 19th century marked Ranji's best year in country cricket. He now possessed the power effectively to destroy even the best bowling. In 1899 when he became Captain of Sussex, he scored 3,159 runs, in 1900 3,065, including his remarkable 202 against Middlesex made in three hours on a difficult wicket. His highest score Was 285 not out, against Somerset (1901) made after having been up all night fishing. Under his captaincy Sussex tied with Kent for the third place in the county championship; only Yorkshire and Lancashire were ahead of them. He was on top of the cricket world.

Country cricket in 1902 was overshadowed by the presence of the Australian team under Joe Darling. It was a strange summer for Ranji, half a dozen superb innings alternating with an unusual number of low scores. He was picked for the first four tests and was dropped for the fifth. He never played in a Test match again, What an inglorious exit to a Test career which began with a glorious hundred!. If 1902 saw the end of Ranji as a Test cricketer, he was far from finished so far as Sussex was concerned. In 1903, Ranji scored 1924 runs including a double century (204 vs Surrey) and four centuries. Twice he was out in the nineties. He was again second in the first class batting averages. The following year (1904) he scored 2,077 runs including eight centuries and headed the English averages with 74.17. Wisden hailed his 207 not out against Lancashire at Hove, "He was at his highest pitch of excellence and beyond that the art of batting cannot go". Away from England during 1905-1907, Ranji returned to first class cricket in 1908. He was installed Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar on 10th March 1907, "the prince of a little state, but King of a great game"(AG Gardiner). All the ingenuity and resourcefulness he had displayed as a batsman went into the administration of his state. In 1908 he played 28 innings, scored 1,138 runs with an average of 45.52. After the 1908 season there followed an interval of three years. Back in England in 1912, he resumed playing cricket, good performances followed, but a strained wrist handicapped him.

1915 was a black year. WG Grace and Victor Trumper passed away and Ranji met with an unfortunate accident. Ranji took a party of friends up to Crosseliff in Yorkshire. He was hit in the right eye by his neighbour, a notoriously erratic shot. The celebrated astrologer Pandit Hareshwar's prediction of some form of mutilation for Ranji came true. For the rest of his life he wore a glass eye and carried spectacles. Undaunted, after an interval of eight years in August 1920, Ranji returned to the crease, His reappearance in three matches was warmly welcomed. He was 48, had put on weight and far from his regal self. At Hastings against Northamptonshire, he played his last Innings in first class cricket, He was out for 1.

In all Ranji played 500 innings, 62 times not out and scored 24,692 runs with an average of 56.37. He made 72 centuries of which fourteen were double centuries, often playing on "satanic wickets and against demonical bowling". The cricket of Ranji, though, is not to be measured in statistics. He was inventive, elegant, exciting to watch - as spectators of three countries testified. Knight, Cardus, Denzil Batchelor, CB Fry and AG Gardiner have witnessed and eulogized on the impact of the Indian Prince's batsmanship. Gardiner wrote, "he combined an oriental calm with oriental swiftness - the stillness of the panther with the shrewdness of its spring". He revolutionized batting technique, Before him batsman scored by forward play, Ranji demonstrated that strokes could be elegantly executed off the backfoot.

If Bosanquet is remembered as the father of the googly, Ranji will be remembered as the inventor of the leg glance. He made it a thing of beauty and this was partly due to his natural powerful eye, quickness and elasticity. It was executed nearer to the stumps - in fact, often off the middle and later, than anyone else. He had, though, all the strokes, and if at first he favoured behind the wicket on the leg side, he became a splendid cutter and a powerful and punishing driver. " But he was loved not because of his mighty scores but something which mattered a great deal more. He was loved by many friends because he was personally charming, piquantly amusing and above all, wildly generous"(AA Thomson). Popularity and success sat lightly on him and he was never given to the first person singular. He had regards and sympathy for the professional cricketers. He had a nice sense of humour and was an excellent extempore speaker. Ranji was a benevolent ruler and an outstanding statesman, particularly remembered for his work in the Chamber of Princes and in the League of Nations where he represented India with dignity and distinction. The Jubilee Book of Cricket which he authored on Queen Victoria's Diamond jubilee is a classic. His ideas on the game find eloquent expression in the book.

Till the end Ranji lived a life of single blessedness. He never married. Alan Ross casually mentions Ranji's alleged engagement to a Rajput princess in his youth. ``He liked the company of women-and indeed had a discreet and long-standing relationship with an English girl. But he showed no signs of considering marriage". Jamnagar's growth and development were his dream children. Ranji died in Jamanagar at five O' clock on the morning of 2nd April 1933. He was sixty. For five days he had struggled from lack of sleep. Asthma and bronchitis dogged him and on the night of 1 April, Ranji's heart had began to fail. It is said Ranji had returned from Delhi earlier after his farewell speech as Chancellor of the Prince's Chamber, a sad and bitter man, An unpleasant and unfortunate exchange of words with the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, one of his greatest friends, who had presided over the meeting, left Ranji a broken man. ``His notorious belief in the goodness of humanity was torpedoed and wrecked".(Alan Ross). Wisden described him as "all that a cricketer should be - generous in defeat, modest in success and genuinely enthusiastic regarding the achievements of either colleagues or opponents".

This September marks Ranjitsinhji's 127th birth anniversary. Already Jamnagar is agog with excitement and celebrations have been planned for October. A monogram showing the immortal leg glance on one side of the coin is to be presented to 22 Ranji Trophy veterans of Nawanagar that month.

Cricketers may come and cricketers may go, but Ranji goes on forever. There never will be another Ranji. He was to quote GL Jessop, "the most brilliant, period " Here was a Ranji! When comes such another?.
 

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